Sunday, 16 December 2012

Profiteroles

Having said only last week that I didn’t want to be faffing around making a croquembouche in the run up to
Christmas, this week I found myself making choux pastry...me and my big
mouth! However, I didn’t make a tower
and left my little buns at the profiterole stage.

I’d never made choux before and it’s become a long running joke
between Mr CC and me that whenever I ponder what to make he says, ‘choux’
before adding that I can’t consider myself a proper baker having never
attempted it (he certainly knows how to goad me!).
So I attempted it. I did what I
always do in times of kitchen troubles...turn to Delia. Her profiterole recipe interested me because she says to spoon the choux onto the baking sheet rather
than pipe it. I realised why when my
choux was so runny it fell off the spoon without any encouragement. Shamefully, I started to doubt Delia and
question her recipe. See how runny it
was:

But I should know better by now than to doubt Delia. Of course they worked just fine and puffed up
into pretty little balls. For the Fanny
Cradock fans out there I am happy – and proud - to report that there was no
goo.

Delia’s recipe fills the profiteroles with whipped cream,
which is lovely, but I decided on a halfway house between cream and crème pat
with my cheaty custard cream filling. It
really is yummy and tastes like so much more work than merely adding some
pre-made custard into whipped cream.
Here they are just after I piped the cream into them. I found using a metal nozzle allowed good
control to stuff that little bun full:

What struck me with choux is how much you get for so
little. Look at the quantities in the
ingredients listings – they’re tiny, yet I got a good 22 profiteroles from
it. I was surprised at how quick they
were to make too.

Of course, the only concern I have now is what will replace
Mr CC’s choux-demands? I only hope it’s
something easy!

20 comments:

Truly scrumptious, as always! My 1st attempt at choux pastry was earlier this year when I made mini éclairs ... I didn't use an electric whisk & my arm felt like it was going to drop off by the time I got the eggs incorporated into the mix! But it was totally worth it ... they were delicious!

These look gorgeous!! I could shamefully fill my mouth with these! Love the tip about the cream. I've only made choux pastry once (also for profiteroles) when I was young, before I was aware it was a "difficult" thing. I think I spooned them onto the tray as well and they turned out lovely.

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